Man, but I love the smell of cedar! Last night I planed the edges and did the light test and did much better this time: I was rewarded with a wonderful smell and a perfectly tight joint after only 6 passes on the table planer. I also used a little less glue when joining the two book matched halves of the soundboard. THe only hang up was when I clamped it down; I put a dink in the soft cedar. Oh well - it's close to the center and that's where the fretboard extension can go.

Meanwhile, we had some issues with the band saw and I only got one of my 4 mold sections cut out. I suppose it was partly user error because I haven't used a band saw before and I found myself fighting the thing around the curves. Still, I have one done, another halfway through and the other 2 ready to go.

Meanwhile my friend has his guitar's body halfway done and was just sanding the rim of the sides as they sat clamped in their mold. He'd been having difficulty with the block where the neck fits in but the third time was the charm. Then it was a matter of mounting a hug radiused dish with a sandpaper disc on it and "driving the bus" until everything was the same height.

After he was done we looked through his box of rosewood scrap and found the joined rosewood backs of 3 failed attempts - cosmetic issues only (grain irregularities.) We're going to cut one up into 1/4" strips to use as the centerline on my mahogany back and the body/fretboard binding. Then I'm going to line it on either side with thin black/white/black purfling. The idea is to get something that looks like this: http://i1015.photobucket.com/albums/...8RTSt1Nik9.jpg